


The Ultimate Truth

by Stan_Hoe



Category: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Genre: Character Study, Fluff, Implied homophobia, M/M, Relatives, love mentioned a hella lot of times, not really but close enough, post book, supportive parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 01:12:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14485530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stan_Hoe/pseuds/Stan_Hoe
Summary: They were still trying to figure out a lot of things, but at least they knew the ultimate truth.Or, Ari doesn't care about anyone besides Dante and The Parents (tm).





	The Ultimate Truth

**Author's Note:**

> I read this book like two months ago and threw myself into this fic just afterwards. I didn't thought I'd post it because it's really fucking scary for some reason, but here I am anyways *sighs*. 
> 
> Here's the thing. I was surprised when I didn't found any family-related fic in this fandom, even more since I felt like it was an important part of the story (then again, maybe I just wanted to read about the bond that Dante and Ari had developed with each others parents). (They totally have a bond, no one can change my mind). Also, Ari's not the first queer family member in the Mendoza clan, and we all know how well that went with Ophelia and Franny, so I ended up indulging myself and wrote this short, sweet lil' thing that you may or may not enjoy. 
> 
> I really hope it doesn't sucks that much, but if I'm completly honest, I know imma regret this as soon as I post this ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> PD: English isn't my first lenguage so I probably fucked it up somewhere :*

Loving Dante turned out to be one of the easiest things Aristotle has ever done in his lifetime. 

He didn’t mean like it was easy all the time, but they had been best friends for so long -and had been longing to being able to express their love more accurately free for almost just as long- that, at the end of the day, everything felt right and in place. 

Sure, things weren’t the same as before, and Ari has been scared shitless of said things changing, but he wouldn’t trade it for the world. He was, for once, utterly happy. He wasn’t angry all the time, and that was probably one of the best changes he had experienced ever since he decided to kiss Dante. 

Their parents, as loving as always, seemed ecstatic for their sons dating -being lovers- and had even more reasons to spend time together. Maybe it was a good thing that their families grew closer to each other. Aristotle has never felt as happy and whole in his entire life, to be able to love and be loved by someone as marvelous as Dante, and he was finally enjoying the company of all the people that were present in his life.

After their first kiss, they spend their night kissing a little more, talking, lacing their fingers together, and kissing a little bit more. It was, probably, one of the best nights of their lives. 

Of course, there were days where it was difficult. Ari had a hard time accepting that he was in love and with a boy nonetheless, and when he finally stopped caring about what people thought about him, his family came around. 

He wanted to be jealous of Dante, because he didn’t have to deal with a large Mexican family that had a lot of opinions about him. He wanted to, but nowadays he couldn’t bring himself to care about minor details like that. Because that is what his large, mostly distanced and unknown, Mexican family was -a minor detail. All that he really cared about was Dante, and his parents, and Dante’s parents. 

It took him at least a year before he could introduce Dante as his boyfriend. Not that his relatives didn’t know about his existence. He was, somehow, always around, even more since his parents started inviting Dante’s parents to every family reunion they hosted, even when they weren’t blood related. 

“Technicalities,” his mother had said when Ari pointed that out. “We already consider ourselves as in-laws.”

Dante had laughed happily at that, while Ari blushed. Maybe someday they could be a real, lawful family. He couldn’t get his hopes high with that one idea. It was 1989 and he was still learning that it was a difficult world for guys like him. The ones that liked kissing boys, or, well, a specific boy. 

He could feel the disgust of his aunts when he was sitting too close to Dante in a couch. He could hear the whisperings and how he, immediately, became a failed parenting-experiment. He didn’t understand how his parents fitted into his relationship, or why anyone could think that he was, somehow, a mistake just because he was in love, but then Dante would look at him directly at his eyes, and lace their fingers together, throwing himself into a story of how Rafael, his little brother, had destroyed a new pair of shoes, joking about how the apathy against shoes run in their blood. Just with that, he could laugh and be free again. 

It’s not like they were trying to draw attention to them. The maximum contact they had in family reunions, or when they were surrounded by strangers, was holding hands, and sometimes, when they were at the table, one of them would place their hand on the other’s knee, but they wouldn’t risk go further. Dante was still scared of how people would react to them expressing their love. Ari didn’t want to put any of them -or, Dante- in danger, so they kept affection on the low. 

Still, he knew that, if it wasn’t for his parents, he would have lost all kind of contact with his family long ago, just like his aunt Ofelia did. 

The one thing that he did regret, was not have kept contact with her. Ofelia. Now more than ever he would have liked to know her. He would have liked to know if she had been happy, loving a woman, even when that had caused people to walk away from her. He wanted to know if things would get better for him -for them. The one thing he knew is that he didn’t want to know if she ever regretted it, because even if she did, he knew that he wouldn’t, ever, regret loving Dante. And, deep inside him, he remembered the love that radiated from his aunt Ofelia and Franny. No one could regret choosing love over an antipathic family. 

His sisters decided that he was a bad influence for his nieces and nephews, and they distanced themselves even more from the family. They kept going to monthly dinners, but in no way they would address him, or let him even look at their children. 

There were times where Dante was at his house when they arrived, and Ari could see them flinch at the sight of them being too close. Both his sisters and their husbands would look scandalized when Dante just casually started joking with his mother about the last time they had gone bowling, where she had managed to crack the floor while throwing the ball too high.

“Maybe you should quit bowling and join a basketball team,” Dante would say, and his dad would let out a laugh that he would try to contain when his mother turned to glare at him. 

“If I remember correctly, you are the one that threw the ball in the wrong track,” she would remind him, and he would mutter a touché while Ari and Dante tried not to laugh. They always ended up laughing anyways, all four of them, and Ari would forget that his sisters were sitting just a few meters away, judging him and his parents from afar. 

Dante, just as his father, was an affectionate person, and he did not blink twice before enveloping his parents in a hug when he was supposed to be going home. His parents had grown fond of him as well and would kiss his forehead or his cheeks as they said goodbye. If he was honest, the habit of hugging and kissing both his parents and Dante’s parents had grown into him too.

He knew that his sisters did not like that at all. Just as him, before meeting Dante, his sisters were closed persons. They didn’t hug or kiss or joke with his parents. They reminded him of his former self; when he thought he hated his father because he was too silent, or when he thought that his mother was a little too over him.

And maybe that was another thing Dante passed to him. He, at almost age eighteen, was crazy for his parents. He was crazy for Dante’s parents. And he was happy that he was admitting for once that he could be able to be crazy about the people that were important to him, because he was crazily in love with Dante as well and didn’t want to deny that ever again.

He sold his aunt’s Ofelia old house. It was too far from home and he didn’t like the idea of seeing the people he loved once in a full moon. He and Dante were able to afford a little apartment close to the city so they could go to college after they graduated.

Life was, finally, fulfilling. Even when he kind of had been rejected by most of his relatives and by almost all his classmates. Even after they had to suffer every now and then because people hated them for no reason. None of them regretted a single thing, because they understood that they were supposed to be together. That was the one mystery the universe was unable to hide from them. They were still trying to figure out a lot of things, but at least they knew the ultimate truth.

Their destinies had been tied from the beginning, and they had all the intentions of keeping it that way.


End file.
